Clementine Hunter

Clementine Hunter
Clementine Hunter circa 1979
Born	December 1886 Hidden Hill Plantation, near Cloutierville
Died	1 January 1988
Occupation	folk artist, Painter

Clementine Hunter (pronounced Clementeen) (late December 1886 or early January 1887 – January 1, 1988) was a self-taught black folk artist from the Cane River region of the U.S. state of Louisiana, who lived and worked on Melrose Plantation. She is the first African-American artist to have a solo exhibition at the present-day New Orleans Museum of Art.

Hunter was born into a Louisiana Creole family at Hidden Hill Plantation, near Cloutierville, in ; she started working as a farm laborer when young, never learning to read or write. In her fifties, she began painting, using brushes and paints left by an artist who visited Melrose Plantation, where she then lived and worked. Hunter's artwork depicted plantation life in the early 20th century, documenting a bygone era. She sold her first paintings for as little as 25 cents. By the end of her life, Hunter's work was being exhibited in museums and sold by dealers for thousands of dollars. Hunter was granted an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree by Northwestern State University of Louisiana in 1986. In 2013, director Robert Wilson presented a new opera about her: Zinnias: the Life of Clementine Hunter, at Montclair State University in New Jersey.

Born either in late December 1886 or early January 1887 Born about 1886, two decades after the end of the American Civil War, Hunter's grandparents were enslaved. She was the eldest of seven children of Creole parents at Hidden Hill Plantation, near Cloutierville in . Hunter's given name was originally Clemence, but she changed it after moving to Melrose Plantation. Her mother was Antoinette Adams (d. 1905) and her father was Janvier (John) Reuben (d. ca. 1910), a field hand. Her parents were married on October 15, 1890. Her maternal grandparents were named Idole, who was formerly enslaved, and Billy Zack Adams. Her paternal grandfather was "an old Irishman" and her grandmother, "a black Indian lady called 'MeMe'" (pronounced May–May).